My Sweet Potato Crop

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Maybe calling it a crop is a tad misleading. But it was an experiment and a teeny bit successful. In July, I had a sweet potato on the counter that had started to grow. It was sending out long roots and just begging to be planted. So even though I’m pretty sure mid July is late to plant sweet potatoes even in New England, I used an old nursery tub and planted it in a bunch of soil that had grown ordinary potatoes some years ago.

I decided not to research – for me research can prove to be the thin line between getting something done (in this case getting the unsightly sweet potato off the counter without wasting it) and spinning into paralysis by analysis and waiting another three to five years to actually do something.

The vines grew in their lovely morning glory way– sweet potatoes are not a nightshade like conventional potatoes, they’re actually in the morning glory family. One of the two robust vines got chomped by some critter, so I had only one primary vine in the end. I remembered to water the pot periodically, but as there was no rain all summer, the potatoes might have been more robust if raised by a more organized person who was inclined to water daily. This is my mom. She is out every morning at six dragging the hose around her beautiful yard. Not me, I’m up at six in the morning, but I’m out with the dog and she could care less about a beautiful yard; she wants to walk.

The cold mornings have come, so one day last week I fished around in the dirt under the sweet potato vines to see what I would find. I was delighted to find something, even though my potatoes are suspiciously baby carrot size. I dehydrated the little tubers just as they were. They made awesome chewy treats for the dog.

Sweater Weather

img_20161014_103019769_hdrThe amount of knitting I do waxes and wanes, but this past summer and into the fall I definitely got my knit on, as they say on Mason Dixon Knitting. I thought I’d share the newly finished and current projects on Fridays until I run out of fun things to show.

This is my new warm sweater made with a vintage Aran pattern I purchased on Etsy after eyeing it for a year. The pictures are a bit wonky, but you get the idea.

There were a few stops and starts along the way. First, I ran out of yarn before I’d finished. Thank goodness Knit Picks had another skein of the same dye lot. Thank you Knit Picks!

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Then I found six buttons at JoAnn but needed seven. After a frantic internet search (The best JoAnn could do for me was to send me driving all over the state with no promise that other stores would have the extra buttons I needed.) I found matching buttons at Pacific Trimming  in New York, and they sent them right off to me.

So now, just in time for cool temperatures I’ve got a vintage look, brand-new, superwash wool, Aran cardigan WITH POCKETS.

I do love sweater weather.